Bob Lutz: After long road journey, Thunder will be home soon

The Wichita Thunder’s bus has been working hard the past month, transporting the team to places such as Allen, Texas; Rapid City, S.D.; Moline, Ill.; and Independence, Mo.

Since Jan. 11, the Thunder has played one home game at Intrust Bank Arena. After two games this weekend at Quad City, Wichita finally returns home next Friday for a game against the Missouri Mavericks.

The Thunder will have played one home game in 32 days after playing 17 at Intrust in the season’s first 67 days.

Thunder fans, I’m guessing, miss these guys.

“It’s always nice to play in front of your home fans,” Thunder defender Dan Milan said. “This is the kind of a lifestyle that can wear on you.”

The Thunder has spent some time in Wichita during the past month, between road trips, sleeping in familiar beds. But just as they get settled in, it’s time to get on the bus and head somewhere else.

Wichita got to a season-best 18-12-2-4 after a 4-3 win over Evansville on Jan. 11 at Intrust Bank Arena. But the Thunder is just 2-5-0-0 since then and finds itself in a battle with Quad City and Tulsa for second place in the Western Conference’s Central Division. All trail Allen, which is bum-rushing the Central with a 30-7-2-2 record and leads second-place Quad City by 16 points.

The top four teams from each of the ECHL’s four divisions get into the playoffs and the Thunder still has a comfortable edge over Rapid City and Missouri. But Wichita needs to get it going.

“Being on the road this long is a grind,” Thunder coach Kevin McClelland said. “But we’re getting our proper rest.”

The biggest reason for the recent slide, McClelland said, is the absence of players due to promotion, suspension and the defections of defender Theo Peckham (Slovakia) and Stephen Schultz (Germany), who decided the grass – or at least the money – is greener overseas.

“With all the adversity we’ve been through,” McClelland said, “we’ve held up pretty well.”

It’s been such a strange season, starting with the announcement the ECHL was absorbing Wichita and six other former Central Hockey League franchises just a couple of weeks before the season started.

The ECHL thing is cool, except that it hasn’t changed much. The Thunder is still playing a ton of games against CHL rivals Allen, Missouri, Tulsa, Quad City, Brampton and Rapid City – 40 of its 43 games so far have been against those Central Division foes.

Wichita did play a game at Elmira, N.Y., in December and two at home against Evansville earlier this month. But there are no other games outside of the conference scheduled this season.

Next season, thankfully, that should change. After losing some franchises on the west coast, the ECHL recently restructured, going from four divisions to six. Wichita will remain in the Central with Allen, Missouri and Tulsa, but play a more varied schedule, said Thunder general manager Joel Lomurno.

“We’ll for sure be playing Colorado, Utah, Idaho, teams in the west,” Lomurno said. “And also Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Evansville … we’ll see those guys, too. Right off the bat, fans will see 14 different opponents next season.”

Lomurno also said he expects the Thunder to play at least one team from the Eastern Conference. With 24 ECHL teams, there is spice in variety.

“But, the plan as GM is always to minimize travel as best I can,” Lomurno said. “It’s best for the bottom line, best for our guys. And our fans still like to see Tulsa, Missouri and Allen. Those are our biggest rivals and we have a nice rivalry going right now with Quad City.”

The talent in the ECHL is regarded as being a step up from the CHL. But the old CHL teams didn’t have long to beef up their rosters, which is one reason why there has been so much coming and going with the Thunder.

“Hockey is hockey, but this is a good league,” McClelland said. “We really haven’t seen the full extent of it because we haven’t played a lot of the other teams.”

The Thunder will be home for 16 of its final 27 regular-season games, including nine of the final 11. They’ll be glad to be off the bus for a while.

“Part of being on the road that’s a positive is that you’re with these guys all the time,” Milan said. “And these are all really awesome guys on this team. We have a really good bond and when you’re out there on the road as much as we’ve been lately, you find out how you get along as a team.”

The Thunder plays at home in a week. Its players hope you recognize them.

This story was originally published February 5, 2015 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: After long road journey, Thunder will be home soon."